Just as the Syrian opposition leans on the West to supply weapons
and other military aid, rebel hackers depend on the international
community to help bolster their tactics.

But even as the conflict reaches new stages of violence
– more than 70,000 people have been killed so far
– support among international hacker communities is waning.

Last year, rebels enjoyed massive support from international
hacker collectives like Anonymous,
which launched several attacks on the Assad government. Early in
2012, Anonymous said it accessed several regime email accounts,
including an account belonging to the Syrian president. Anonymous
renewed their pledge to support Syrian hackers last November as
the Assad regime threatened to shut down internet access across
the country.

But after several arrests and convictions, Anonymous’ OpSyria
seems to have ground to a halt. Without wider international
support, Assad's Syrian Electronic Army’s dominion in the Syrian
internet war is all but unchallenged.

In recent weeks, the Syrian Electronic Army has launched a number
of successful campaigns, seizing control of social media accounts
belonging to a broad range of news organizations and nonprofit
foundations. The Syrian Electronic Army says western news
organizations are outlets for Syrian rebel propaganda.

On Thursday, the Syrian Electronic Army continued their string of
high profile hacks when they took control of several BBC Twitter
feeds, including @BBCWeather, @BBCArabicOnline and
@BBCRadioUlster.

“The Syrian Electronic Army Hacked Today BBC Network accounts on
Twitter and that came in response to what BBC practiced of lies
and fabrication of news and in addition to the bias to the bloody
opposition...,” read a statement from
the Syrian Electronic Army, which claimed responsibility for the
security breach.

Last week, the Syrian Electronic Army also gained access to
an administrator account for Human Right Watch, calling the
organization’s report that Assad is using cluster munitions
“false."

This year alone, the Syrian Electronic Army hacked social media
platforms used by the Qatar Foundation, France 24, Deutsche
Welle, AFP and Sky News.

The Syrian rebels are partly hamstrung by a lack of electricity
and technology. Their numbers, too, have been depleted as Assad
forces make arrests, aided by the work of the Syrian Electronic
Army, which tracks dissent on Facebook.

To protect their ranks, rebel hackers are breaking into their
allies’ Facebook accounts to remove anti-regime media.

As the toll of the fighting ravages Syrian infrastructure,
anti-regime hackers are struggling to stay active on the digital
front in Syria’s civil war. Heider, a member of a rebel hacker
collective known as Pirates of Aleppo, is now living in Turkey.